Republican Federal Judge David Sentelle: How the GOP Has Packed the Courts With Partisan Hacks

The hijacking of the federal judiciary by the Republican Party – through the appointment of aggressive partisan judges combined with preventing votes on nominations by Democratic presidents – is the hidden cancer on US government. The sudden nixing of recess appointments last week by a DC appellate court panel of three Republican-appointed judges is symbolic of the macro-subversion of justice through manipulation of the federal bench, including, of course the Supreme Court.
It should be remembered, for those who have forgotten, that almost no legal scholars or analysts – conservative or liberal – thought that the Supreme Court would rule on the 2000 presidential ballot recount dispute in Florida. But Antonin Scalia, the exhaustively partisan hack who impresses people with his intellectually sounding illogical and unconstitutional blather, stopped the recount faster than you can say "stolen election."
Then he went onto gather his partisan five votes to permanently halt the recount in an act of Republican hypocrisy usurping states' rights that was limited, in the opinion of the felonius five, to apply only to the one case of – in effect -- appointing George W. Bush as president.

Enter David Sentelle, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Not only is the DC appellate court the most powerful in the land, it is essentially the pre-trial hearing ground for government cases before they reach the Supreme Court (if the Supreme Court chooses to hear an appeal).
Last week, Sentelle headed the three-judge panel that voided the NLRB and CFPB appointments. As we know, unlike elected officials, federal judges are appointed for life (unless they are impeached by Congress, resign or die).
Once Sentelle was on the DC circuit of appeals, he became the Zelig of partisan decisions. It would be a rather lengthy list to see the damage Sentelle has done to justice.

Sentelle changed the course of US history when he appointed Ken Starr to oversee the so-called Whitewater investigation of the Clintons. Robert B. Fiske, who was the original independent counsel overseeing the Whitewater charges was going to exonerate the Clintons and end the investigation. Senator Helms (who died in 2008) and fellow North Carolina Senator Lauch Faircloth met with Sentelle for lunch in 1994 and reportedly told him to in essence fire Fiske and appoint Ken Starr (a reliable hound dog to continue the GOP impeachment Jihad), which Sentelle dutifully carried out. This political action changed a nearly closed case (Whitewater) into an open-ended witch hunt to find a reason to impeach Bill Clinton..

We could go on almost endlessly about the large swathe of constitutional damage that Sentelle has done on behalf of partisan Republican politics.
But the NLRB and CFPB recess appointment ruling is indicative of how the Republicans have placed Manchurian Candidates on the federal bench who have – and will – cause decades of politically biased ruin to a democracy based on an unbiased reading of the Constitution.

1. Thug Plan

It has been a lasting goal of Rethugs to appoint the most conservative judges they can find and appoint them, especially to the appellate courts. Obama can get almost no judges appointed at the appellate level. The Supreme Court, and the federal judiciary, in general, is the last firewall the thugs have. They are determined to keep liberal judges out and appoint the most conservative judges themselves. Obama needs to go to the wall to get his judges appointed in his last four years.

3. You need to add

Orrin Hatch of Utah to that list. His main goal in the Senate was to stack the Judicial Branch with rightwing judges. So anytime that rightwing Court claims something is Constitutional, it reminds me of Justice Taney's claims that a white man does not have to respect the rights of a Black man. One of the most important events in our history was when Lincoln wanted to arrest that croney. He was a terrible excuse for the Court.